Donald L King
Assimilation is considered to occur when at least one perception becomes more similar to a second perception or retained perception. Assimilation between colors is well known to occur. Assimilation between perceived locations also occurs: A first object made the perceived location of a second object more similar to the first object’s physical location hence presumably also more similar to its perceived or retained location (Born, Kruger, Zimmermann, & Cavanagh, 2016; Cicchini, Binda, Burr, & Morrone, 2013; Eagleman & Sejenowski, 2000; Ganz, 1964; Morrone, Ross, & Burr, 1997; Rentschler, Hilz, & Grimm, 1975; Smith, 1954). Assimilation between different perceived three-dimensional distances (3Ds) also occurs per results of Albert and Tse (2000), Foley and Richards (1978), Gogel (1965, a review), Li, Huang, Altschuler, and Tyler (2013), and Westheimer (1986). Assimilation between perceived 3Ds presumably also occurs per informal observation. For example, an inside white area of a line drawing of a Necker cube seems to almost invariably be perceived as rather similar to the perceived 3D of a rather close point on a line of this drawing including when the Necker cube reverses in perceived depth. The perception of a current stimulus is similar to the perception of a stimulus on at least the past trial including for perceived location, orientation, shape, color, and loudness according to reviews of Lockhead (1992), Manassi, Murai, and Whitney (2023), and Pascucci, Tanrikulu, Ozkirli, Houborg, Ceylan, Zerr, Rafiei. and Kristjánsson (2023), and Lockhead maintained that assimilation is enabling. A perceived group (gestalt, whole) is associated with an increase in the perceived similarity (assimilation) among the features of the objects that are apprehended as belonging to it (D. L. King, 1988; D. L. King, 2001, a review). Assimilation between locations arguably enables the M-L illusion (King, 1988; Krueger, 1972; Prinzmetal, 2005). Assimilation between tilts arguably enables the Zollner illusion’s increase in perceived similarity in tilt (Oyama, 1975), and assimilation between sizes arguably enables the Delboeuf and Ebbinghaus illusions (Mruczek, Blair, Strother, & Caplovitz, 2017). The binding of an object’s perceived features to its perceived location occurs, perhaps because assimilation enables this sameness in perceived location. The conditioned stimulus (CS) comes to be perceived as more similar (assimilated) to the perceived US per results of, for example, Jenkins and Moore (1973) and Timberlake, Wahl, and D. A. King (1982), and hence assimilation of the CS perception to the retained US perception explains why the CS produces a response (the conditioned response) that is similar to the US-produced response (the unconditioned response) (D. L. King, 2001). The Stroop result is evidence that a word can result in the partial perception of its referent, hence hinting that assimilation enables classical (sensory) conditioning to occur between a word and its referent and thereby enables a word to result in the partial perception of its referent, thus also hinting that this assimilation also enables reading to occur. When an animal’s current response, for example, an instrumentally conditioned response, is about the same as its previous response, its current perceived response-produced stimulus is very similar to its previous retained response-produced stimulus, perhaps because its current perceived response-produced stimulus has about completely assimilated to its previous retained response-produced stimulus. Likewise, when imitation occurs, as it sometimes does when one talks, an animal’s current perceived response-produced stimulus is rather similar to its perception or retention of a demonstrator’s response-produced stimulus, perhaps because the animal’s current perceived response-produced stimulus has assimilated to its perception or retention of the demonstrator’s response-produced stimulus.
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